Chapter 5: The Marauders' Secret
It's gonna be a long hot summer and we should be together... "Keith Urban "Long Hot Summer"
Later that night, Dumbledore dropped the memory into his penseive, the only source of light in his office. The conjoined silver strands floated down, lighter than a feather in air, and touched the surface of the water. Immediately, the liquid exploded with images-the face of the seer, her eyes huge and glassy as she spoke the words to Dumbledore-
Beware the rising Dark Looord...
His plans to attack Hogwarts can only be thwarted by one...
He will destroy Hogwarts, school of Witchcraft and Wizardryyyy...
And everything that surrounds it...
Lives will be torn apart, thousands killed...
Destruction, flames...but for one witch, who
Has the power to prevent ittttt...
But her sacrifice to save will not be her life...
Lily Evanssss...
The Prophecy could not be clearer than that. Lily Evans was the only one who could save thousands of lives from death and destruction, but she would not have to pay with her life.
But Dumbledore knew better than anybody...there were things worse than your life that you could pay with.
"Welcome to Greece!" We disposed of the piece of garbage we'd used as a portkey and begin to climb up the grassy, sloping hills of Kalokeridemos. Which, according to Mrs. and Mr. McKinnon, was called Keride for short, pronounced Care-a-day. The whole long Greek word meant summer village, which we all thought was extremely fitting once we laid eyes on the sunbathed streets and buildings, the blue ocean glittering not too far in the distance.
"It's beautiful!" I gasped, spinning around and trying to take in everything at once.
The three Marauders dashed ahead, laughing and shouting to one another as they actually rolled down hills, luggage following suit.
"We are going to have so much fun!" I exclaimed to Marlene, eyes dancing.
"Count on it!" she promised, turning her face up toward the sun. "Just wait until you see the village-full of cute Greek guys."
"Marlene," her father said sternly, looking down with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" she asked innocently, lips curling up into a devilish smile. Her mother rolled her eyes at her daughter's antics, pushing her sunglasses down onto her nose. Even at six, with the two hour-ahead time leap, the sun's rays were still beating down hard. We were going to be doing a lot of swimming, I could tell.
By the time we finally made our way into the village we were all sweating and panting and were secretly using about fifty wind spells each, each time thinking the others wouldn't notice.
"Richard, why again didn't we apparate into the house again?" James's mum, Daisy, asks.
"Because, dear, no use risking the muggles seeing us use magic! Look, besides, we're already there!"
The village was beautiful. Tucked away in the hills and overlooking the ocean, it took my breath away from the moment I first laid eyes upon it. There were no cars; everything was built so closely together, everyone's space was everyone else's-it was all like one big family. There were donkeys, though, or mules, that were being led by their owners, carrying their belongings on their back.
"Wow," I whispered in a hushed voice, with the silly thought that if I spoke too loud it would all pop like a bubble. "It's beautiful! All of it! Which is yours?"
"I know, I love this place. Our is up there…" She pointed to a Mediterranean-blue roofed house jutting out of the hill a lot bigger than the rest.
"It was smaller, but we used magic to gradually expand it because of all the people we let come with us," she explained quietly so the muggles passing wouldn't hear.
"Hello, McKinnons and friends! Welcome!" A sun-darkened man called to Marlene's father, nodding as he passed. Shouts like this echoed after that, following one another in a rapid succession in a musical mix of Greek and English. We hauled our bags up the sun-washed white stone path, passing ladies hanging laundry on the same clotheslines as their neighbors, chatting rapidly in Greek as they worked together. It seemed like a happy, simple life.
"Prongsie, Moony" Sirius muttered under his breath from in front of us, his eyes focused on a pretty, long-haired girl in a white sundress-revealing, by the way-sitting on the flat roof of one of the houses, watering some kind of plant. "Ten o'clock." He grinned at the girl as she looked down, waving jauntily.
"Hello up there! Abla En-glaise?" James called up with horrible pronunciation.
"This is Greece, not Spain," I hissed to him.
"Thanks for the tip, Evans," James threw over his shoulder as the girl let out a bell like laugh, answering in English.
"Is someone jealous?" Marlene nudged my shoulder as the adults opened the house, exclaiming how long it had been, and how much they'd missed it.
"It's so clean!" Mrs. Potter ran her hand along the white walls. "And you haven't been here in two months?"
"Everyone is so nice here, they keep it in good shape while we're away," Marlene's mum beamed.
A teenage boy from the house on the right called out in Greek through the window, waving. Marlene answered, also in Greek, leaving me baffled.
"I didn't know you knew Greek," I commented, eyes still on the Greek boy who's white cotton shirt contrasted nicely with his darker skin. "Teach me?" I nudged her arm, winking.
"I know a bit," she laughed. "Let's get our stuff into our room-we'll be sharing, the boys will, and the four adults get two rooms each."
"Sounds perfect," I sighed, following her up the narrow staircase. Everything was so different than in Britain, down to the colorful, threadbare rugs covering the stone floor. The houses seemed to grow right off up the ground, mixing elements with nature.
"This isn't going to be all swimming and climbing on the roof, you know," Marlene poked her head out of the closet, which looked much bigger from the inside-it almost seemed impossible architecturally. I put that down to magic. "Mum's going to make us do chores, and that means scrubbing, and all that stuff. Toilets included, no magic allowed."
"I don't mind!" I told her truthfully.
Later that night, several of the neighbors held sort of a gathering, and we all danced to the music played by a few men on instruments I'd never seen before, much less knew what to call. The sound of exotic notes filled the air as Marlene introduced me to several teens, who, thankfully, spoke at least halting English. There was Katarine, a short girl who spoke it slowly and kept mixing up the words 'boat' and 'house', Kostas and Vythos, the latter of whom had called to Marlene through the window earlier, and Dimitris, a slightly older boy who spoke English almost as well as Greek. I tried a piece of dark bread with some sort of blue-ish green spread at Marlene's insistence as we moved away from Katarine and the rest, and almost spit it out in surprise, choking on the sour taste.
"That-was," I gasped, searching for the right words, talking loudly over the loud music and laughter. We were under some sort of stone floored building with just a ceiling and the occasional beam holding it up, leaving it mostly open to the evening air. I groaned at Marlene's laughing face, bending over and clutching her sides, laughing at my expression which must have been pretty humorous by the way she was guffawing.
"Very nice, Marlene, just remember we're sharing the same room," I groaned, wiping the corner of my mouth. "You'd best sleep with one eye open," I threatened.
"I'm terrified, Lily," Marlene rolled her eyes. "Want to dance?"
"Let's go!" She grabbed my wrist, pulling me out into the middle and we dance in the group with everyone else. I couldn't help but notice it, but a feeling of unease had started in the pit of my stomach about ten minutes ago, when we'd first arrived, and had been rapidly spreading. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
But that was perfectly ridiculous, and I was determined to ignore it and enjoy myself.
"Enjoying yourself, Evans?" Sirius stepped by, somehow managing to dance with three girls at once.
"Not as much as you are, Black, I'm sure," I laughed at him and Marlene rolled her eyes, keeping her gaze away from him, cheeks slightly pink. I suspected why Sirius came over here with three girls, and it wasn't to ask me whether or not I was enjoying myself.
"I think you should ask one of those cute Greek boys to dance," I suggested to her casually. I notice with a start that when Sirius had gone by, I didn't see James with him-I actually didn't see James anywhere.
He was probably with a girl, I rolled my eyes internally. But-Remus was gone, too.
"I will if you too!" She returned merrily. I opened my mouth to reply-just then, my eyes glanced over to the darkest, most uninhabited corner of the room-James and Remus were signaling frantically to Sirius, who had just made eye contact with him-casting one grieving glance at the three girls like he wouldn't be back anytime soon, he dashed out, and all three boys disappeared into the setting sun.
Something was wrong.
Sirius Black never, never left a pretty girl-especially three of them.
"Actually, I-you go ahead," I attempted a casual tone. "I'll just-I need some air."
"Okay…are you alright?" Marlene eyed me suspiciously.
"Yeah-yeah, I'm fine. I'll see you later, alright?" I slipped out, muttering the only word I had picked up in Greek so far-Pardon me.
Eyes sweeping around the village growing out of the hill, I darted out down the road I thought I'd seen the boys disappear down.
I quickly scampered down the path, listening for voices-
"-don't know where to go, could we apparate somewhere?" Sirius's anxious voice floated to me-from just down the road, several houses down.
"No, we can't do that when he's about to-you know!" James hissed, looking around anxiously. I darted quickly in an empty open doorway, thanking Merlin that the house's inhabitants were gone-at the gathering, I presumed.
"Wait-look! There!" Remus pointed out into the glinting ocean, reflecting the orange of the sunset. So far away that it was just a smudge, lay a small island-that much was clear. "I don't think my "other self" knows how to swim," he laughed shakily.
"Funny, Moony. But good idea. How will we get out there?" The boys picked up their pace, now jogging urgently.
"Jack a boat?" Sirius suggested. Both James and Remus looked at him like he was crazy.
"What? It's for the greater good, mates. Better this than the other alternative," Sirius's voice held eerie significance. What was I missing? I tried to keep my footfalls light as I followed after them. The sun was setting, but the full moon was also in the sky-both burning red.
"...can't risk...magic..."
"...boat?"
"ARE YOU MAD? Don't you think they would realize that their boat was duplicated?!" Remus said loudly.
"Not if we park it on the other end of the island!" Sirius exclaimed hotly. "Now let's go, before he changes! We haven't got much time!"
James muttered the spell so quietly that I couldn't hear a bit, and both Remus and Sirius stood guard, standing behind him.
A split second later, two completely identical motorboats bobbed side by side in the water, and the three Marauders were piling in, Remus sitting in the back, legs pulled up to his chest. It looked like his fist was in his mouth, and his eyes were squeezed shut-
I felt something snap into place inside of me, but just momentarily, just long enough to alert me to it's presence, but brief enough for me to just fall short of grasping it. I knew what was going on-but, yet, I didn't.
Should I follow them? I hesitated.
Of course I should. They might be in danger.
So I apparated across the waters, directly into a conveniently tall tree, wobbling for a heart-stopping moment before grabbing onto the trunk and holding for dear life. It was dead in the middle of the island, which was bigger than I realized. The last rays of sun were shining on the waters, before dipping down and disappearing completely. I stood, inexplicably transfixed, rooted to the spot. Almost like I couldn't remember how to move- but I stayed and watched, not twitching a muscle, until the last of the sun had dipped down, the ocean swallowing it whole. Only the full moon remained now, but it alone was enough to light the island.
With a jolt, I suddenly remembered why I was here. I quickly magic-ed myself down from the tree, glad to have my feet under solid ground again. It had grown dark-very dark, very fast. Especially with the trees blocking out the moon. Tree branches popped and snapped under my feet, the sounds bouncing around. The island seemed mysteriously...empty. There were no bugs flying around my face to bat at, no crickets singing or frogs chirping...it was almost as if all animal life had forsaken it. Like the calm before a storm.
Almost, except for the less subtle sounds of occasional splashes in the water.
"James?" I didn't know why. But suddenly I was very, very nervous. "Sirius? Remus?"
Something cracked behind me, and I whirled around. "Who's there?" I whipped out my wand-the bushes started to tremble, and a low growling noise was reverberating from the forest ground...
"Homenum rev-" a furry, black mass silently pounces on me, and I fell back onto the floor. Winded, heart beating wildly out of control, terror coursing through my veins-I'd lost my wand, I couldn't reach my wand-
Suddenly the thing shifted and it was Sirius holding me down on the ground, on my stomach, legs tangled with mine.
"Lily, what in Merlin's name are you doing here?" This was as deadly serious as I'd ever seen him. His eyes dart around nervously, wincing as a wolfish, keening howl splits the air.
"Sirius, what the hell-would you get off of me? What's going on?" My voice carried, louder than it was supposed to.
"Lily, get out of here, now!" He didn't roll off me, but only got in my face more, conveying the urgency of the situation. If Sirius was this scared, I was, too.
"I-how?"
"Apparate!" He whisper screamed. "Use your wand!"
"I-you sort of attacked me-wait-were you a dog?" My voice was hoarse as I whispered.
"Never mind that, we've got more important matters at hand! Help me find your wand!" He finally got off me, and madly started scrambling around, cursing whenever he pulled up an ordinary twig, thinking at first that it was my wand. I did the same, hands shaking slightly.
"Sirius, you have to tell me what's going on!" Another mournful howl split the air, piercing the night, and chilling me to the bone. It was too dark to be scrambling about looking for a twig in a pile of twigs, and Sirius finally realized it.
He swore, hitting the ground. But he quickly leapt to his feet, spinning around and checking his back.
"We have to get you out of here, follow me," he stood urgently, grabbing my wrist and pulling me through the foliage. Pure adrenaline was the only thing keeping me from feeling the snapping twigs cutting into the skin of my face. Sirius fell forward, and I stumbled, trying to catch him-but he hadn't fallen, he had morphed into a dog as black as the night.
"You're an Anamagi," I hissed at him, putting my shaking hands in front of my face to push away a particularly nasty looking branch. We finally made it to the edge of the island, scrambling over the sand into the water. The waves splashed up to my knees, to my waist, the icy cold shocking my senses into overdrive. Sirius paddled his legs furiously, panting loudly. Back in the woods I heard trees crashing, and a high pitched yelp. Sirius whipped his head around, whimpering as if in pain. The motorboat was floating out, further into sea, and land was just a dark smudge against the even darker endless sky.
With a splash he returned to his human form, completely soaked as his head bobbed under, and he gasped, spluttering as he came above the waves. The enchanted boat was slowly filling with water, sinking until it disappeared completely under the next wave.
"We're in trouble now," Sirius turned back to me grimly. "You can't swim back that far, can you? No, I suppose not...and you can't tread water forever..."
"Sirius Black, stop. Look at me. I grabbed his shoulders roughly, stopping him from plowing through the chest-high waters. "What is back there? What could be worth drowning myself getting back to shore?" He looked at me urgently, searching my eyes.
"I think you know, Lily," he answered darkly. "I think you've already got it figured out, you just won't admit it to yourself yet." A tremor ran through me, and the cold finally set in-the temperature of the night air plummets, and the wind was picking up, soaking us both to the bone. Sirius was shivering violently, but I doubted he even realized. I noticed with a start that the barely-audible sound of clacking and grinding are my teeth banging together.
"Come on, we'll get you up-up a tree- or-or something," he pulled me toward him, and we huddled together, trying to keep whatever little body heat we had.
"Werewolf," I spluttered as a wave broke over my head, and lightning split the sky. "Remus-he's a werewolf. And you-you are an Anamagi." Another wave broke over my head, and I stumbled, going under for a moment. I flailed around, and I thought I hit my head on something-I can't tell, I was too numb with cold. But my skull reverberated with pain before the adrenaline kicked in.
"Are you alright?" Sirius asked after grabbing my arm, pulling me up.
"I-yeah," I touched my hand to my head tenderly, but it was too dark to see if any blood had come off on my hand-so I assumed that there was none.
"Okay, so not up a tree," Sirius muttered darkly, glaring at the lightning and ignoring my statement. We struggled onto the shore, and I cried out as I cut my foot on a jagged rock-both of my flip flips were long gone.
Sirius threw one of my arms around his shoulder as I hobbled toward the trees. Sand coated our legs up to our knees. All I want to do is curl up in bed-
"What are we going to do?" I moaned.
"We-JAAAAMES!" He bellowed just as thunder rumbles. He flung hair out of his face, pulling at his shirt, which was plastered to his body. "JAAAAAMES!" Rain began to pour, and lightning split the sky once more, illuminating everything in eerie white light.
I didn't hear it coming at all, but in a moment a giant stag was outlined in front of the trees, galloping toward us.
"Is that James?" I screamed over the waves pounding the shore and the rain driving itself into the ground. The trees were whipping and leaves and small bits of foliage were flying around in the strong wind. The foot that I cut was numb, and I had to succumb and put it down in the sand, even if that meant infection.
The stag shrank, and as it ran toward us, it becomes James.
"James, where's Remus?" Sirius roared as James pounded toward us, looking at me in horror.
"Back there! Trying to get out of the rain! Lily-dammit-Sirius, what is she doing here?" He bellowed.
"She followed us, mate, and she cut her foot," Sirius yelled, cupping his hands over his mouth to be heard. James wiped furiously at his glasses, clearing the rain, but only momentarily.
"Go check on him!" He shouted at Sirius, and he viciously ripped the sleeve off of his shirt.
"Put your foot up!" He yelled urgently as Sirius became a dog, taking off into the forrest. I half-sat, half-fell down onto the sand, pushing away dripping bits of hair that had plastered themselves to my face, offering my foot to James. Hands steady, he quickly wrapped the fabric around my foot, tying it on the top.
"Can you run?" He looked up at me, then behind us, everywhere-I could see terror evident in his eyes-not for himself, but me.
"I-I don't think so," I gasped, my voice thick. The cut was worse than I had originally thought-stabbing knives of pain are rolling through my whole leg, causing me to stagger forward.
James caught me with strong arms, clutching my shoulders-my neck snapped forward, my cheek grazing his shoulder. He easily lifted me up, one arm under my back and the other arm under my legs. Bridal style, I thought, but now is not the time for embarrassment. Only immense gratitude.
"You're an Anamagi, too," I shivered violently, and he pulled me closer to him as we stumbled through the woods. I heard a whimpering howl, much closer now. The sound of a werewolf.
"W-we need to get hidden," James yelled over the wind, chest vibrating with his voice.
"N-not up a t-tree," I chattered, and thunder rumbled threateningly across the sky to prove my point.
"Bush," James got out. "Rain-rain will c-cover our s-scent."
"All-all night?"
"If we have to."
At one point I tensed up, thinking I heard pounding feet, but it must have been my imagination-because nothing was following us.
"What about Sirius?" I asked.
"He'll be fine, Remus doesn't really attack us much as animals."
"Attack you m-much?" James didn't answer.
"Here," he let me out of his arms, and clawed a hole in one of the bushes, breaking branches so there was a little den, almost.
"Are you staying?" He pushed me into the den, and it was amazingly uncomfortable. But better than out there. He followed me in, pulling at twigs and branches to close the gap.
"Would you rather get Hypothermia? And I suppose you have questions," pulling the last bit of branch to cover the opening, he sat back, hunched over. I was curled into the fetal position, holding my foot and trying to apply pressure, and only succeeding in making my fingers even colder than they already were. It was a spacious hiding place, but not very tall at all. It was dark, but not pitch black; I could see the outline of James's tensed jaw. Rain still dripped into the shelter, but not as heavily as outside.
I readjusted myself, trying to ease my skin off of the sharp twigs to no avail. They were everywhere. But still, I reminded myself again. Anything is better than outside.
Another howl split the air. Poor Remus, I thought mournfully to myself.
James looked at me oddly, and I realized that I must have said it aloud.
"Poor Remus?" He asked incredulously. "I don't even think my mom would say that if she was in your place," he shook his head in disbelief.
"What do you mean?" I closed my eyes, suddenly very tired.
"Just...think. None of this would have happened if he wasn't a werewolf."
"It's my fault," I shook my head sleepily. I ached all over, and I would even more tomorrow; my muscles screamed in discomfort already. But I tried to block it out. "I shouldn't have followed. And it's not like Remus asked a werewolf to bite him," I responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. James was silent. I put both of my hands on my injured foot, wincing. "How long have both of you been Anamagi? Is Peter one, also? Is that how you got your nicknames?" The last question popped into my head.
"We started changing in fifth year," James began to respond quietly, rubbing his hands together. "And Peter is a rat. Yes, that's how we got our nicknames."
I drank this new information in. It made sense, now, a lot of things.
"Furry little problem," I murmured. I was really beginning to shake now, even though I was warming up. "I bet he never even had a rabbit!" I murmured, giggling. After all, it was funny, wasn't it? A furry little problem. That's what they always said. Everyone thought he had a badly behaved rabbit.
"Lily...are you alright?"
"Of course-course I am!" My voice sounded high-pitched. Little red dots began to swirl in my vision, dancing and multiplying until everything was outlined in red. And now I was cold again, and soon a splitting headache started pounding through my skull. "No, James..." I murmured. "I feel...odd. My hands...I can't feel my hands." I closed my eyes, but heard the twigs crunching under James's weight as he shifts.
"May I?" I opened my eyes, and there was not one, but two James's, floating and dipping. I didn't even know what he was talking about, because all I could see was the pale circle of his face.
"May you what?"
"Erm-warm up your hands."
"Yeah," I muttered. "James, I feel really weird." He looked at me, a bit scared. "
"Your hands are like ice," he murmured. "Lily-Lily, you're on fire!" He said as his hand went to my forehead, and his voice rose in panic.
"Someone is calling my name," I whispered.
"No, Lily! No one is calling!" He almost shouted. His voice was frantic. "Lily, wake up!" He shook my shoulders and I cried out in pain. "Don't fall asleep, or you might not wake back up!" His eyes were huge.
"They're calling your name, too," I informed him. I could hear someone, shouting both of our names...
"Mum?" His head snapped up.
"Told you," I whispered.
"Al-alright, Lily, just wait, my mum knows about Remus, she must have guessed you'd follow, wait-just wait-"
"Mum!" He roared, standing and breaking through the roof of our shelter. I whimpered and pulled my head in my arms; the rain was pounding on me again.
"Lily-" he stooped down again, pulling me back up-his voice sounded like garbled gibberish now. I didn't hear him, didn't understand him. I just wanted to go to bed...
I thought I was in his arms, but I wasn't sure. I was just too tired...to tired to open my eyes...my eyelids were so heavy...
I screamed in pain as my head knocked against James's muscled arm, the pain breaking me out of the fogginess I was descending into.
"Merlin, Lily, what happened to your head? You're bleeding!" I closed my eyes again, pulling my arms into my chest, trying to warm myself.
"Mum! MUM!" James bellowed. "Help us! Are you protected?" He shouted.
"Yes, yes I have my wand, I can shield myself-quick, give us Lily-your father's over there, he found a wand, we think it's hers-James, WHAT in Merlin's name HAPPENED to her head?" She shrieked.
"I don't know! Is she okay? D'you have her? I've got to help Sirius!" He didn't leave immediately. "Won't she be alright?"
An older version of James's voice floated through the air, yelling something garbled. And then I was floating.
I opened my eyes, and everything was hazy, color-tinged-James was looking down at me worriedly, I didn't know how I was suspended in the air-
"James!" I screamed. "Watch out!" Something was behind him, stalking closer. A giant monster-wolf with red eyes, but no one looked, didn't anyone see it? My voice was too slow, too thick-was I even making any noise? Did James even hear my warning? I tried to kick out, to thrash, to scream-anything. But all I had control of is my eyes-and then even that went. The last thing I did before I lose consciousness was see the monster attack James, pouncing on him from behind, red eyes glowing.